There is also a constant, low-level anxiety about the potential for a hate crime. Michelle picks up Hannah and her little brother Tristan, 10, from their schools now, rather than let them walk home.

But Hannah's return to the classroom, a big source of anxiety over the summer, has turned out remarkably well.

Staff from the superintendent on down have been supportive. The school system has changed all its documentation to read "S. Hannah Rini" — no confusion for substitute teachers and the like. And Hannah is allowed to use the nurse's restroom.

One friend, Kenny, has backed off a bit. He says he's uncomfortable with her transition. But that is the exception, thus far. Hannah says the girls in her class have been "awesome." The mother of one friend, a boy, gave Hannah a bracelet and painted her nails.

This level of support — from peers and family — is hardly a universal experience. Dr. Forcier has stories of parents in great distress — one suicidal, another who passed out discussing a child's gender identity.

The pediatrician tells the Brown students that she's just seen a kid, earlier in the day, who said "you're the first person who's actually made an effort." And the young people Dr. Forcier worries most about are those she doesn't see: the true castoffs, pushed out by family and church, selling sex, buying dangerous street hormones.

But the Rinis' experience suggests that a cultural revolution, of sorts, is sprouting up alongside the medical one. If we, as a society, still insist on a firm wall between male and female, we're beginning to poke some holes in it. We're beginning to make some accommodations.

And for kids like Hannah, those accommodations may be as important as any hormone injected into her body.

Jenny Holzer's projections remake buildings Jenny Holzer is not an architect, but in 2004, when she projected those words onto the stone facade of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan's Times Square, the historic building acquired a character it had never before seen.

Fusing porn with high art Porn in the form of prose and poems, along with sexy and graphic illustrations and photos, fill the pages of Salacious , a new magazine dedicated to erotic art and literature, the likes of which you may never have seen — at least not compiled in one place.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted The franchise that began as a tame kiddie pleaser about four pampered zoo animals lost in the wild has matured and sharpened its teeth, perhaps thanks to Noah Baumbach ( The Squid and the Whale ) collaborating on the script.

Trans explosion When a social movement gets its own high-profile celebrity poster child, you know it must be hot.

The future of contraception Whether your interest is personal — Get me off these hormones! — or policy-related — Global population is growing too fast! — the matters discussed at last month's Future of Contraception Initiative conference in Seattle matter to you.

Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Unfortunately, Fincher doesn't add much to Niels Arden Oplev's Swedish version: more Googling and plot-compressing montages and an altered but still convoluted ending.

Exploring deep within Hannah Holmes, the Maine-born, Portland-dwelling science writer, naturalist, and friend to all animals has turned her lens deeply inward in her latest book, The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself .

Safe sext Blogging, vlogging, and social-networking have already hit orange-alert levels on the oversharing meter. Now pushing things into the red are "sext messages."

LIBERAL WARRIOR | April 10, 2013 When it comes to his signature issues — climate change, campaign finance reform, tax fairness — Whitehouse makes little secret of his approach: marshal the facts, hammer the Republicans, and embarrass them into action.

AT BROWN, A WIN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS | April 11, 2013 A key Brown University oversight committee has voted to recommend the school divest from coal, delivering a significant victory to student climate change activists.

HACKING POLITICS: A GUIDE | April 03, 2013 Last year, the Internet briefly upended everything we know about American politics.

BREAK ON THROUGH | March 28, 2013 When I spoke with Treasurer Gina Raimondo this week, I opened with the obligatory question about whether she'll run for governor. "I'm seriously considering it," she said. "But I think as you know — we've talked about it before — I have little kids: a six-year-old, an eight-year-old. I'm a mother. It's a big deal."

THE LIBERAL CASE FOR GUNS | March 27, 2013 The school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut spurred hope not just for sensible gun regulation, but for a more nuanced discussion of America's gun culture. Neither wish has been realized.